George Yang

Rolling Stone • December 14th, 2024

Inside Pac-Man's Gritty New Redesign

There are very few gaming gaming characters as instantly recognizable across all of popular culture as Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog, but Bandai Namco’s Pac-Man is one of them. The yellow fruit-eating circle’s iconic “waka-waka” eating soundbite is one of the most recognizable sounds in gaming. Debuting in 1980 in arcades (a full year ahead of Mario himself), Pac-Man is celebrating its 45th anniversary in 2025, although he’s sporting a very different look.

Rolling Stone • December 13th, 2024

'Split Fiction' Might Just Be the First Big Co-Op Game of 2025

It all started at The Game Awards 2017 when Hazelight Studios director Josef Fares said, “Fuck the Oscars” to an audience of millions of viewers. It was a funny and sobering moment in an otherwise advertisement-heavy show. After his profanity-filled yet otherwise innocuous speech, the show introduced a new gameplay trailer for the 2018 co-op game, A Way Out.

Rolling Stone • October 31st, 2024

'Dragon Age: The Veilguard' Is Bioware's Best Game in Ages. Here's How They Got There

It’s been a rough few years for Bioware. Originally known for making back-to-back (to back) RPG classics like Baldur’s Gate (1998), Neverwinter Nights (2002), and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003) — as well as two sprawling, epic franchises with Mass Effect and Dragon Age — the Canadian developers once seemed unstoppable.

Rolling Stone • October 30th, 2024

How the New 'Indiana Jones' Video Game Got Its Star

Todd Howard always wanted to create an Indiana Jones game. In 2009, the prolific director of titles like Fallout 3 came close, pitching an Indiana Jones game to LucasArts, the video game subsidiary arm of Lucasfilm. However, the collaboration didn’t end up happening.

Digital Trends • September 24th, 2024

How Heihachi lives on in Tekken 8, even after death

When Heihachi Mishima was revealed to be Tekken 8’s next DLC character, I was both surprised and not surprised. The series antagonist was killed off in the previous entry, Tekken 7, by being thrown into a volcano, but miraculously survived somehow. The only thing stronger than death is DLC, I suppose.

Rolling Stone • August 21st, 2024

With 'King of Meat,' Amazon Games Goes Where Google Couldn't

For the past two decades, modern gaming has been dominated by a few platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and PC. With the four platforms in a competitive gridlock over the years, it was difficult for a new player to break in on equal footing or innovate.

Rolling Stone • August 1st, 2024

'Tekken' Director Katsuhiro Harada Won't Add Waffle House to the Game (Yet)

Few fighting game series have the longevity and popularity of Tekken. From its inception in 1994, its core gameplay mechanics have stayed consistent through many iterations, while also building upon it with updated features. This allowed for the movement, skill, and knowledge that players accumulated throughout the years to carry over with each new entry.

Anime News Network • June 20th, 2024

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves Team Discuss Updating the Series After 25 Years

The Fatal Fury series made its debut in 1991 with Fatal Fury: King of Fighters around the time when other fighting game franchises were starting to appear or hit their stride. The biggest ones we know and love today, including Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat, came from that era. While those had new iterations every several years and kept consistent, Fatal Fury's last entry was Garou: Mark of the Wolves in 1999.

Anime News Network • June 20th, 2024

DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO Producer Explains the Long Wait for More

The Dragon Ball franchise is one of the most recognizable properties in the world, with a variety of manga, TV shows, and video games created out of it. The Dragon Ball Sparking video game series was incredibly popular in Japan. Known as Dragon Ball: Budokai Tenkaichi series internationally, it garnered fans around the globe to where there were three separate mainline entries for the PlayStation 2 and a spin-off for the PlayStation Portable.
However, the series seemingly ended in 2010, with no m...

Rolling Stone • June 20th, 2024

How Hidetaka Miyazaki Made 'Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree,' His Biggest Expansion Yet

Elden Ring was undoubtedly 2022’s Game of the Year, winning numerous awards across different shows and publications. With its dark fantasy atmosphere, punishing combat, and challenging difficulty, players keep coming back for more. It was also developer FromSoftware’s first open-world game, so it needed to have more content than any game that the studio had made before.

Game Developer • June 18th, 2024

Pocketpair CEO: Palworld owes its success to automation mechanics

Palworld was one of the first surprise hits of 2024. It entered early access in January and had sold over 15 million copies on Steam by February. It also reached over 10 million players on Xbox. In April, developer Pocketpair revealed that players spent a collective 1.3 billion hours playing the game, which equates to 150,000 years.

Game Developer • June 12th, 2024

Astro Bot makes the tech demo mascot into leading bot material

PlayStation has found its very own cute platformer mascot in the modern age with Astro, the hero of the Astro Bot series from developer Team Asobi. He burst onto the scene in 2018 with the critically acclaimed Astro Bot: Rescue Mission for PS4 and PlayStation VR. His follow-up adventure, Astro’s Playroom, was released in 2020 and came pre-installed with every PS5 console.

Game Developer • June 12th, 2024

Making Ubisoft's open world model work for Star Wars Outlaws

For years, Ubisoft has been known for its open-world game formula, complete with large sprawling maps, a litany of side quest markers, and landmarks for players to discover. This formula can be seen across most of Ubisoft’s biggest franchises, including Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, and Far Cry. In a quest for seemingly endless content, Star Wars Outlaws looks to be following in those footsteps. However, it can be a challenge to fill such big worlds with more intimate, tightly knit stories.

Digital Trends • May 29th, 2024

You know cyberpunk. Now let Nine Sols introduce you to ‘Taopunk’

A studio known for creating horror games pivoting to a new genre isn’t unheard of. After all, Tango Gameworks shifted from creating games such as The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo to the goofy and colorful Hi-Fi Rush. The Taiwan-based studio Red Candle Games followed a similar trajectory on the way to its newest game, Nine Sols.

GameSpot • May 22nd, 2024

How Until Then Showcases The Beauty Of Filipino Culture

The Philippines-based Polychroma Games is set to release the narrative adventure game Until Then later this year. It follows a young teenager named Mark in the Philippines as he goes through the trials and tribulations of high-school life, such as hitting deadlines and making presentations.

NME • February 2nd, 2024

8TURN on their new mini-album ‘STUNNING’: “We're not trying to be someone who we aren’t”

K-pop has become more popular than ever and the scene shows no signs of slowing down, from a notable presence at this year’s Coachella festival to a slew of major world tours. The pressure to stand out is more immense than ever, but as boyband 8TURN exclaim in their group greeting: “Whose turn? 8TURN!”

The New York Times • January 9th, 2024

Unfinished Video Games Are Turning Into Hits

The scope of the video game Vampire Survivors grew considerably during its early access period, in which players gave feedback to the studio.

When players buy games in early access, they can give studios both valuable feedback and a crucial revenue stream.

NME • December 21st, 2023

Riot Games on Heartsteel: “The Baekhyun and Ezreal collaboration was a dream”

There were very few, if any, empty seats at the glorious Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea. The throngs of fans, eagerly awaiting to see the showdown between China’s Weibo Gaming and South Korea’s T1 at the League of Legends Worlds 2023 Finals, filled the stadium with an energy that was immensely palpable. We were ready for the esports event of the year, but Riot Games knew how to turn up the hype even more.

Inverse • December 14th, 2023

'Alan Wake 2' Director Sam Lake on the Game Awards, Baldur’s Gate 3, and DLC

It was the zaniest moment at the Game Awards. In between the 2023 award show’s endless stream of video game commercials and the occasional actual award, TGA host Geoff Keighley ceded the stage to a gang of leather-clad musicians. Cosplaying as The Old Gods of Asgard, a fictional rock band that exists within the Remedy video game universe, real-life Finnish metal group Poets of the Fall performed a ballad from Alan Wake 2 two while the game’s starring cast sang and strutted alongside a troupe of backup dancers.

Kotaku • December 6th, 2023

How K-Pop Made League of Legends Immortal

The longevity of League of Legends is astounding. Across the industry, developers are trying to grab a share of the lucrative live-service games pie. Since 2009, the enduring popularity of this multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game has made it a golden goose: often imitated, but never replicated.

NPR • November 30th, 2023

Retro role-playing video games are all the rage — here's why

Developer Thierry Boulanger still lights up when you ask him about his favorite game from his childhood. "Chrono Trigger. This game is why I chose this career," says Boulanger, the creative director of the 2023 indie Sea of Stars. "I remember being 10 and entering Guardia Forest. The music hit me so hard, and it connected me with the notion that there was a guiding hand behind any game you play. From that point on, I started daydreaming about games I would want to make."

IGN • October 30th, 2023

ConcernedApe on Stardew Valley Concert, Haunted Chocolatier's Soundtrack, and More

Stardew Valley is one of the most successful indie games of all time, with lifetime sales of over 20 million copies since its launch in 2016. Since then, developer ConcernedApe has expanded the brand to include new ventures such as the Stardew Valley board game and is currently working on his next game, Haunted Chocolatier.

IGN • September 19th, 2023

Tales of Arise Producer Is Open to Bringing Older Tales Games to the West

In 2021, Bandai Namco’s Tales of Arise took home the award for Best Role Playing Game at The Game Awards. Since its release, it has gone on to sell over 2 million copies across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.

Two years later, it’s getting a new story expansion called Beyond the Dawn , which takes place one year after the events of the main game. The party of six meets a young girl named Nazamil, who is half Renan and half Dahnan, fated to fall under the curse of a mask.

Crunchyroll • July 25th, 2023

Amazon Games’ Mike Zadorojny on What Makes Blue Protocol a Stand Out MMORPG

Blue Protocol is a new anime-style MMORPG developed by Bandai Namco and published by Amazon Games. It takes place on the planet of Regnas, where the overuse of technology has created space-time distortions. As the player character, you’re tasked with saving a world that’s on the brink of destruction.

Crunchyroll sat down with Amazon Games franchise leader Mike Zadorojny to talk about Blue Protocol and what players should expect from the game.